NASCAR made its way to Martinsville this week following an exciting Straight Talk Wireless 400, delivering an interesting short-track race in the Cook Out 400. On a day that saw a few of the sport’s most well-known drivers struggle – Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher and Alex Bowman – others shined.
The action started with some surprising Stage 1 results, with Joey Logano taking first while the likes of AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek came in behind him. With that group cleared out, Denny Hamlin won Stage 2 with Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe rounding out the top five. All of that set the scene for a fun race to the finish.
Let’s dive into our winners and losers from the Cook Out 400.
Winner: Denny Hamlin recaptures mastery of Martinsville
The active leader in laps led at Martinsville, Denny Hamlin dominated the Cook Out 400. Chase Elliott (8th then 2nd) and Hamlin (9th then 1st) were the only drivers to finish in the top 10 of both stages. The No. 11 also led for nearly 3/4 of the race. Even late on Stage 2, when his tires had 50 more laps on them, he was able to beat out Elliott for the playoff point. In the final stage, After securing Stage 2, Hamlin led the field the rest of the way and cruised to his first win of the season.
Related: NASCAR standings in Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series
Loser: Josh Berry’s bad luck on pit road
A week ago in the Straight Talk Wireless 400, Josh Berry got hit and spun around on pit road to slip down the racing order. It proved costly as he finished 17th, securing just 23 points. The No. 21 car was certainly hoping a trip to Martinsville would go a lot better. He seemed poised for a top-three finish in Stage 1 until disaster struck again on pit road. After a collision with Bubba Wallace, with the No. 23 hitting Berry’s driver-side door, Berry couldn’t even make it to the second corner before the dash went black and he had to be pushed back to his pit box for his battery to be replaced. It put him 2 laps down, costing valuable stage points and the battery required constant replacing every pit stop.
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Winner: Ty Gibbs breaks out of slump
Ty Gibbs entered Sunday 34th in the Cup standings, having the third-fewest point total (68) among full-time drivers. It certainly wasn’t all his fault, but the fact of the matter was that the No. 54 was irrelevant all year. Gibbs’ fortune finally changed on Sunday. Even with some contact from Tyler Reddick that forced a caution and sent Gibbs back numerous spots, he worked his way back to finish 13th. Gibbs still doesn’t have a top-10 finish this year, but the Cook Out 400 was the massive step forward he needed and it’ll hopefully provide some positive momentum to build off moving forward.
Related: NASCAR power rankings before Martinsville
Loser: FOX’s NASCAR coverage
There’s good news for NASCA fans: the conclusion of the Cook Out 400 means there are only seven more races before the Cup Series is done with the network’s coverage for the season. Everyone understands, even if frustrated by it, that modern television is dominated by commercials. So it’s no surprise that Fox/FS1 takes every opportunity it can to cut away from the race. What we’re knocking the network for is everything they didn’t provide on Sunday.
FOX’s crew didn’t provide multiple angles of the contact Carson Hocevar made with Chris Buescher in Stage 1 that caused the No. 17 car to lose control. It also didn’t show what happened to Denny Hamlin, in that same stage, which caused him to lose multiple spots. Even worse, it ignored that Kyle Busch fell to the back of the field because of issues on pit road, nor did it share his issues with the car that he reported on the radio. It’s a massive problem when cans can receive far better coverage from a race on Reddit than they do from NASCAR’s broadcasting partner. We’ll give kudos to the broadcast for this, it rightfully blasted Saturday’s Xfinity race.
Related: NASCAR schedule 2025, Cook Out 400 TV info
Winner: Bubba Wallace maintains momentum from Miami
Bubba Walalce had the fastest qar in qualifying at Martinsville to start the weekend and that success carried over into Sunday’s Cook Out 400. He narrowly missed picking up a few points, thanks to a late pit before the end of Stage 1, but that strategy by the 23XI team paid off. After placing third in Stage 2, Wallace carried that position all the way to the finish. It marks his second consecutive third-place finish and will push him into the top six of the standings heading into April.
Loser: Ricky Stenhouse Jr’s penchant for penalties
Martinsville hasn’t been an awful track for Ricky Stenhouse Jr, with three top-20 finishes in his last six races. The Cook Out 400 was a brutal showing for the No. 47 car and the blame has to fall on Stenhouse’s shoulders. He was twice penalized for speeding on pit road, throwing him to the back of the field in a race where he was already struggling to be relevant. If the penalties weren’t bad enough, he was at one point struggling to stay ahead of Burt Myers. Following Sunday’s showing, Stenhouse Jr. will fall out of the top 25 in the standings.
Winner: Ryan Preece’s strong stretch continues
The 2025 NASCA season started with the terrifying Ryan Preece crash that left him thinking only about seeing his family again. In the next three races, he finished 18th, 33rd and 15th. Since leaving Phoenix, the No. 60 car has been one of the best out there. Preee came into the Cook Out 400 with consecutive top-10 finishes, including last week at Homestead, where he worked his way up from a 31st starting position to a 9th-place finish. We saw similar results at Martinsville, with Preee starting 21st, grabbing 4 points in Stage 1 and finishing Sunday’s race in 7th. Over his last three races, Preece has racked up over 85 points.
Loser: Alex Bowman’ has an awful day’s dreadful Cook Out 400
Everything that could go wrong for Alex Bowman on Sunday did. The No. 48 started Sunday third in the starting grid, the same positioning he sat in the points leaderboard. However, issues with the car required an additional pit stop and Bowman’s best efforts to work his way back to the lead lap were later stymied by a pit road penalty for going too fast. After four consecutive top-10 finishes, with 30-plus points in his last thee races, Bowman had his worst race of the season on Sunday.